Suncoast Blues Society Holiday Party w/Popa Chubby/Selwyn Birchwood SBS welcomes NYC’s Popa Chubby to rage the Skipperdome stage for its annual holiday party. Chubby (born Ted Horowitz) is a smoky-voiced axeman with an electric blues influenced finger-licking style and songs packed with searing solos like recent fast-shuffling single “She Loves Everybody But Me” off 2011 album, Back to New York City. Sarasota bluesman Selwyn Birchwood kicks off the evening’s festivities. (Skipper’s Smokehouse, Tampa)
Nate Najar’s Holiday Jazz Show The festive programming at Palladium continues as St. Pete’s own Charlie Byrd-influenced finger-style nylon-stringed acoustic jazz guitarist, Nate Najar, leads an ensemble that includes guest Ohio brassman Ken Peplowski (clarinet, saxophone), vibes player Chuck Redd, bassist John Lamb, drummer Stephen Bucholtz and a special TBA vocalist through select holiday favorites and portions of Duke Ellington’s jazzed up Nutcracker Suite. (Palladium Theater, St. Petersburg)
Trans-Siberian Orchestra You’ll likely never experience a more bombastic holiday spectacle than that offered up by Trans-Siberian Orchestra, best known for re-arranging holiday music into symphonic metal and prog-shredded rock operas telling fresh seasonal tales of loss and redemption. The huge ensemble performs with enough vocalists to make a full choir and synched to blasts of lights, lasers, pyrotechnics, video and various other visual effects. This tour, TSO hits town with two full-length presentations (at 3 and 8 p.m.) of The Lost Christmas Eve (the final LP in their Christmas-themed trilogy). They’ll also perform select cuts from 1996 debut Christmas Eve & Other Stories and 2012 EP, Dreams of Fireflies (On a Christmas Night). (Tampa Bay Times Forum, Tampa)
The Last Saturday Ever Party A new mixed-used indoor-outdoor space hosting live music in the Southside’s arts warehouse district, Inside the Gates, stages this festive occasion marking the last Saturday on the Mayan calendar. From 4 to 8 p.m., Trigger City Trio, Glory Road and Seratonic vie for a spot in the regular rotation at Ale and the Witch and a headlining slot at Inside the Gates during a friendly battle of the bands throwdown. Dunedin-based reggae and jazz-tinged rock three-piece Shoeless Soul kicks off the night’s revelry, followed by waka-waka funk-jam quartet The Funky Nuggets, from Boynton Beach, and another South Florida outfit, the femme-led psych and hard rock trio Honey Henny Lime. Groove fusing jam rock outfit Juanjamon Band, led by keys and sax player Juan Montero, closes the party. (Inside the Gates, St. Petersburg)
The End is Nigh w/Sheep/Zulu Wave/Alias Punch/Halibut/The Tell Sign Another end-of-the-world themed concert event, this one featuring a fine quality bill of area indie bands, among them, St. Pete roots-flecked rock purveyors Sheep (formerly known as Calla Terrace), Tampa’s propulsive prog-post rockers Zulu Wave, and loose rolling psych, surf and art punk trio Alias Punch. A portion of the $10 door proceeds go to the family of late artist Bill “Woo” Correira. (Local 662, St. Petersburg)
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 16
Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks Holidaze Show w/Passerine A class all unto his own, Dan Hicks is a well-heeled singer-songwriter with an appealingly skewed sense of humor who pits his low and velvety vocals and the odd scats against a vibrant blend of jazz, folk, swing, bluegrass, pop and gypsy music. He’s been active since the mid-1960s and has a vast repertoire, but this WMNF-backed concert with his Hot Licks is sure to draw heavily from his 2010 holiday LP, Crazy for Christmas. Hicks also plays two shows at Craftsmen House in St. Pete on Thurs., Dec. 13. (Skipper’s Smokehouse, Tampa)
Asking Alexandria w/As I Lay Dying/Suicide Silence/Memphis May Fire/Attila As a companion to 2011 sophomore full-length Reckless & Relentless, Asking Alexandria shot and released Through Sin and Self Destruction in May. The 15-minute short film is really just a glorified music video trilogy (“Reckless and Relentless,” “To the Stage” and “Dear Insanity”) chronicling the British metalcore outfit’s misadventures in sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll. You can see the entire thing exclusively at iTunes for $2.99 — or you can watch the middle episode/video, “To the Stage,” for free on their site. The propulsive tempo-changing arrangements, dramatic shattering breakdowns and vocals jumping between sub-deep guttural roars, jagged screams and cleaner-toned wails sync with a storyline that finds the band members raging at a seedy bar 30 minutes before stage time when a hungry-eyed seductress slips lead singer Danny Worsnop a mickey and takes him upstairs for some good old fashioned crosseyed action — until he overdoses on her cocktail and starts foaming at the mouth. Not sexy. Wonder how it begins? Wonder how it ends? I don’t, but I do admire the GNR-inspired moxy. Asking Alexandria brings several other crushing acts on their current “Monster Energy Outbreak Tour,” most notably, San Diego metalcore makers As I Lay Dying, on the heels of the release of sixth studio album Awakened. (The Cuban Club, St. Petersburg)
